Characters and Community: The Building Blocks of Social Engagement

In marketing, the importance of learning the “language” of your customers means more than you might think. It is a vast encompassing series of intersections that couldmake your head spin. Thankfully, you’re in good hands with us.

Let’s make this navigation a bit easier, with our list of signals and road flares to better guide you down that road to success.

Training and Hiring Effective Marketers

There’s more to marketing than a piece of paper completed at a college or even a resume. Understanding of varying sorts can give you an edge when responding to your customer base. Confused? It’s ok. We’re going to explain.

Hire Characters

Did you know there is a yearly conference called the Twitter 140 Characters Conference? This annual conference, hosted by Jeff Pulver, runs with the word “character.”

On Twitter, you have the opportunity to write status and message updates with 140 characters. The conference, however, is about more than just the word count.

The word “character” refers to an anecdotal reference toward the people that possess it. It takes a character to write effectively on Twitter. The conference focuses on how both words and people are characters on Twitter and it highlights several different people who are utilizing the service in unique or standout ways.

Take an example from Jet Blue. A customer tweeted, “I just traveled across the country without getting dysentery. Thanks, Jet Blue!”

A Jet Blue employee who had an extra bit of knowledge and character injected it into the customer experience. In this case, it was the pop culture knowledge of the game “Oregon Trail” which netted the witty banter to engage this customer.

Let’s look at his reply: “@Robotube: We have unlimited snacks onboard, but when you shoot a buffalo, you still only get 200 pounds of meat.” This injection of personality or character elicited further response from the customer raving about Jet Blue. Characters written by characters get engagements.

Research and Educate

Customers want to know that you do the research and education needed in order to best serve them. This may include writing articles about what is going on in their particular field of interest or somethingbeyond that. Do your research and give them what they desire. Education is a powerful tool. Don’t forget to use it.

Know the Power of Chats

Did you know that you could easily start your own conversations with free tools online? Have a Twitter account for your company? Start a Twitter chat.

Twitter chats get attention from a variety of audiences–from entertainment to marketing to fashion and several categories in between. Take advantage of this! Twitter chats are not only a forum with built-in engagements but a place to build a community.

Using forums such as Twitter helps build your company by promoting conversation, which is always a great thing. Using tools like Twitter and providing helpful links and other resources to educate your customers are huge points in making your community great.

Respond Fast and Often

Some of the best online customer service programs are ones that are on the ball with responses. Take Media Temple, for example, they have a dedicated team for social networking that will assist customers and respond within moments of their inquiries.

A company that has a rapid and fast response rate is one that gets noticed and talked about–something you most definitely want in your corner. Respond fast to your customers and watch them be disarmed almost instantly, regardless of their reason for communicating was bad or good.

Hiding from a bad review or comment will not only make you look bad, it will also give your customers a bad taste. Customers will not only talk about the bad experience, they will also talk about the way it was handled.

Handle your bad reviews by confronting them as peacefully and proactively as possible. Do not hide reviews or delete comments. Face your fears, even in the worst circumstances.

If you’re looking for more information on effective customer communication, you can check out more here. Our site includes several different ways to navigate the marketing field and get great results from customers.

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